St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-04-18
WHEN THE ICE GOES OUT.

No Longer is This the Matter of
Interest it Used to BE, But a Few
Families Await the Time With
Fear.
When the ice goes out of the river.
For years, ever since some time in the
forties, there has been record kept, a sin
gle line in some log-book of the weather
service, or a musty ledger of some man who
has little to do apparently except to collect
material for making an almanac, giving the
date when the great body of ice in the Mis-
SiSSippi river has gone out. The fact that
the spring is coming and the lengthening
rays OF the sun have burned away the
frosty bonds that held the river ice-bound,
has been thought worthy to be made part
of the history of the city. Once, when
railroads were not here and the steamboats,
that landed at the docks were the chief
messengers from other chimes, the
fact that the ice had gone out
was matter of interest to every citizen,
for it meant that communication was soon
to be established with the great outside
world. In the early days the newspapers
considered the going out of the ice one of
the chief events of the spring. which was
worthy of extended notice. But of late this
has been changed. The ice goes out, and
perhaps a bare note of the fact is made in
the morning papers. The surface of the
great river some morning is seen sparkling
and blue, while on the night before it was
burdened with heavy, unsightly slushy, ice.
A few, whose business takes them within
sight of it, make passing remark on the
fact. and never think of it again
until next spring 1t doesn't affect
their business and they haven't time for any
thing that does not touch their pocketbooks.
But there are few in this city every spring
who watch the breaking of the ice With a
feeling of eageness and dread combined, a
few VINO read the short paragraph that the
ice has gone and then for days
WATCH THE MORNING PAPERS
with feelings almost of fear They look at
the current as it carries along stray timbers,
jagged blocks of ice and bits of drift wood,
as one looks over the list of killed and in
jured when some train is wrecked on which
a friend was riding. or wien steamer goes
down on the ocean ON which friend had
taken passage. Why? Not winter passes
that the river is not made the grave, for q
time at least, OF number of human beings
And it is when the ice goes out that the
river gives up its dead, if ever, before the
final day when all graves shall give them
up. This was suggested to reporter yes
terday by remark he heard.
Il never read that the ice has gone out of
the river said a gray-hared man with whom
a., GLOBE reporter was talking yesterday,
'.that I do not shudder almost. My boy was
drowned in the Mississippi twenty years ago.
He went from home one day and did not
come back at night. We waited for him I'M
til we became feaful, and then began search.
He was a little fellow. only ten years old. and
the only traces we could find of him was his
cep which some one came upon the day
after We last saw him. 1t was on
the shore and the wind had
blown it up into some bushes. We could not
find the boy, and had given up all hope of
ever seeing his body. But when spring came
and the ice had gone, one day some men
down a mile or two south of the city found
the body Ever since then l can't help think
ing about it every year when the ice breaks
up. The river is a hungry monster who de-
YOURS men and women and children. Every
spring know that some families are almost
afraid to live. for time after the ice is gone,
for they do not know how soon will be settled
the fact that some member is Dead whom
they still hope may be alive, though they cah-
not tell where.
The old mans remarks seemed to be in
the line of truth, for the reporter remem-
bered two cases of the sort, this spring,
which are still fresh III the minds of the
public. There may be others-how many
and in what families the Lord only knows.